Interviewer Answer Key Wrong - How to Respond?

Question

Hello,

I recently had a case interview and was struggling on the math. The interviewer and I agreed on the numbers until the second to last step, where let's say I kept getting the final answer as 7050. After struggling for a while, the interviewer told me the answer was 7500. We then ran out of time. Going through the steps again, I am almost certain that his answer key had wrongly written the answer as 7500 instead of 7050, especially since we aligned on everything up to the second to last step which only included some simple arithmetic. However, he was a partner so I assume he was familiar with the case/may have given it before (unsure). Is there anything I can do about this/what should I do?

Answer 1

Hi there,

Short answer is - what is done is done, not much you could do at this point, but also no need to be overly worried about it.

Consulting case library refresh regularly, and for partner case (I assume this may be a final round?) it may not even be a formal case. Here is a post that discusses this in more detail.

However, if the rest of your case went well, you may still have a fairly good chance to pass. If anything, this partner admitted in the end that you were right, so I doubt he would penalize you for running out of time. Would just focus on what will come next and think what you wish you've done better this time.

Best,

Han

Answer 2

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the progress in the application process thus far!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

First of all, I would advise you to not worry too much about this. Even if the final result was off, what matters more to an interviewer is how you think, structure, and communicate - not perfect arithmetic.
Moreover, I would strongly advise you to move on from this and focus on your next steps. If you hear back positively, great. If not, then it’s a learning moment - and not necessarily a result of this small mathematical mistake.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 3

Hi,

Ideally you would have had enough time to walk the interviewer through the calculations so that the interviewer could see for themselves that it's incorrect. If the interview is already done and over then there's nothing much you can do about it.

Answer 4

Honestly, I doubt the Partner was even looking at the answer key. He probably gave that case dozens of times before, knows it inside out and know the calculations by heart.

The only possibility, but it's incredibly slim, is that even though he's given this case so many times before he ALWAYS got it wrong (which I struggle to believe).

Nevertheless, right or wrong, there's nothing that you can do about it at this point. It might help you to know that something like this is not a make it or break it. In that sense, you could make mistakes and still pass (I've seen this with countless candidates).

Hope you get good news soon!
Best,
Cristian

Answer 5

Hello ! I think you can "informally" ask about it when you receive your feedback, by expressing your interest in wanting to understand how the calculation is done for that particular question.